Dita Von Teese opened Alexis Mabille’s couture show today, slowly descending from a grand staircase at Sotheby’s Paris headquarters, which was transformed for the occasion into a chic salon. Dressed glamorously—and rather demurely by her standards—in a shimmering sequined tuxedo, she was the only black swan in a défilé populated by white-clad creatures.
Mabille called it Carte Blanche. “I had a feel for purity freed from color; it was almost as if working on the toile during an essayage,” he explained, referring to the white-canvas patterns that seamstresses usually make to test the shape of a dress. White gave him a sort of clean slate to highlight every dress’s design and structure. He played the full couture repertoire: the mastery of draping and cutting; the exquisiteness of details; the layering of featherlight textures in different nuances of white—from crème fraîche to optical. It was a sort of virtuoso exercise on the very Parisian ésprit de couture.
Every look was rather individual, as is customary in many collections today. What made the show cohesive, beyond the choice of white as the non-color, was Mabille’s very flirty, seductive approach. “I was inspired by the divine Jacqueline de Ribes,” he explained. One of the great society ladies, the viscountess is still the epitome of allure and charisma. Her aristocratic profile and fabulous fashion sense has graced more designer mood boards than can be counted.
A fierce sense of individuality is a rather French attribute, so the designer riffed on it rather effortlessly in the collection, working on varied silhouettes for his many clients. “They all possess what I call ‘l’intelligence du look’ (the cleverness of the look),” he explained. “They never wear a look the first-degree way; they always add their own personal twist.” His women are obviously fond of real jewels (“They don’t do costume jewelry,” he underlined); and Sotheby’s was gracious enough to lend fabulous vintage jewelry from its upcoming April auction to be worn in the show. The jewels accessorized layered laces veiled with sensuous mousseline, and the many corseted numbers that the designer described as “slightly bondage-y, but romantic and comfortable.”
Well, comfort wasn’t the first thing that came to mind when a model twirled on the catwalk wearing a fitted bustier dress shrouded in a nuage of tulle and lace. And even if an all-white collection immediately evokes a rather obvious bridal approach, who would walk the aisle dressed in a trompe l’oeil asymmetrical sheath, kept in place only by a flirty bow that left almost half the body completely exposed? Well, it certainly wouldn’t be the choice for a first-degree bride. Since individuality today is key, nothing is impossible.
